This Blog is a part of my media social experiment. Comments, suggestions and questions are welcome (vv.free.physics@gmail.com). For the specific lists of posts use links on the right. For consulting services of Education Advancement Professionals visit www.GoMars.xyz. Thank you for visiting, Dr. Valentin Voroshilov.

“The new law, called the National Quantum Initiative Act,
allocates up to $1.2 billion in funding to keep American quantum information
science competitive on the global scale” (quote from GizModo).

One of the direct goals of this bill is to energize
the development of a practical and functioning quantum computer.

The development of a quantum computer has become “an
arms race” between all major countries.

Although, some
scientists are skeptical about the whole idea (it has been around for more
than thirty years with a very little progress), possible outcomes of having a
functioning quantum computer may be extremely rewording – scientifically and
technologically.

As I see it, the situation is similar to the widely
spread excitement after the discovery of the first high temperature
superconductors in 1986. Everyone expected an explosion in the applications, including
every-day devices. That, however, has not happened. Superconductors functioning
at room temperature still don’t exist. Existing high temperature superconductors
are highly high maintained ceramic materials which cannot be simply made in a
wire, like copper. Even getting funding for a theoretical research in the field
has become very difficult because no one believes anymore that it can be “easily”
done. But, high temperature superconductors still have found their use, and the
research in the field is still alive.

The situation with quantum computers today is similar
to the situation with high temperature superconductors thirty years ago, because
fairly recently small but functioning quantum computers have been “discovered”,
i.e. built.

How to build a quantum computer?

1. We need to develop a quantum system, i.e. a system composed
of microscopic objects which obey laws of quantum mechanics (usually an array of superconductive rings, or atoms), that satisfies specific
conditions:

(a) we know its properties, specifically its Hamiltonian;

(b) we can define a state of this system;

(c) we can measure a state of this system;

(d) we can predict the evolution of states of this
system (that is what Hamiltonian is for).

(e) hopefully, states of this system may be related to
some important aspects of our macroscopic life, for example, large numbers.

When a quantum computer is built, we set it to a
desired initial state, measure the final state, and use the information about
the final state to extract information we need, based on the assumption that
the evolution was happening according to our expectation.

The problem, though, is that because quantum systems
are very sensitive to noise, experience so-called decoherence, and other
factors, some physicists
do not believe in the feasibility of an actual practical quantum computer.
I am not a physicist (I’m
in education), but I am with the sceptics. Even ninety years after the
development of the theory of quantum world (quantum mechanics, quantum electrodynamics,
the standard model) physicists still disagree on the foundation of that theory.
There are still different interpretations of what quantum mechanics tells us
about the world. Building a quantum computer on a shaky theoretical foundation does
not seem to me like something probable.

This situation reminds me the current situation in the
field of artificial intelligence. Scientists still disagree on what intelligence
is, and yet tech entrepreneurs are trying to build its artificial model.

But the main point of this piece has nothing to do with quantum computing.

One of the common examples and a strong motivation for the development of a quantum computer is that it will allow to brake large numbers into its prime multiples, and also searching large databases much faster than a regular computer.

So, why not develop a large database of prime numbers and their products? Instead of actually braking down a large number into its prime multiples, just find that number in a database, and use already know factors? Turns out that database would have been way too large, simply impossible to be created.

The next question is why don’t put some extra funding into the number theory? The Fermat’s Last Theorem has been proved. Maybe with some extra push, someone will finally find a general equation for prime numbers? That could help with decryption problem maybe even faster than development of a quantum computer.

Appendix:

Some pieces on the foundations of quantum mechanics or
other mysterious features of the universe:

According to Niels Borh, in order to be
true, a new idea should be crazy enough to stand out among the mainstream views
– think big, have a vision, dream on!

The concept described below might seem too
“crazy”, but it is based on the scientific and technological realities, as well
as on the experience and expertise of the author. The mission of the project is
to prove that good schooling (a) is possible, and (b) to generate scientific
data badly needed to promote current education research to a state of a true
science (please, note, this page represents only one of the versions of such a
school).

Functioning

(scroll down to skip this
part and go directly to the part on financing)

A regionally- and facet- distributed joint
onsite-online-live-streaming collaborative high school is a new kind of school,
which is innovative and unique.

The mission of the school is to prepare all its
students for a thriving future. The school will be a nucleus of a research
faculty. The mission of the facility built around the school is to organize,
conduct and analyze results of a longitudinal study of all aspects of learning
and teaching processes.

The school is composed of classes (= school units) set
in different school districts (eventually in different states: 50 states, two
school units in each state, one class for each years of school, 30 students in
each class = 12000 students). Classes in the same time zone are run on
the same schedule. During each lesson there is one leading teacher who is
primary responsible for preparing a curriculum, lessons plans, exercises, assessments
and all other relevant teaching materials. Students in all other classes have a
live connection and communication with the class of the leading teacher. Each
class during each lesson has at least one teacher assistant (two – for a large
class). One of the assistants is a “first assistant”, who takes the leading
role in the absence of the leading teacher. Each classroom is equipped with the
streaming equipment. Each lesson in each class is being streamed live and being
recorded for the further analysis and further editing. Technical requirements:
live communication between all classes must be fluent and flawless and provide
for students and teachers the means for immediate interaction and a sense of
being immersed in the mutual process of discovery. Legal requirement: every
student, parent, teacher, staff member is required to sign a release form to
concur that he or she allows the release of video and audio materials which
include his or her.

For each subject the school has one leading teacher;
leading teachers should not work in the same districts.

Each leading teacher is also a leader of a team
responsible for preparing a curriculum, lessons plans, exercises, assessments
and all other relevant teaching materials. Team members communicate regularly
using remote communication technologies.

A team of full-time professionals - including
educational psychologists, experts in curricula development, experts in
development of assessment tools and analysis of the results of the assessments,
experts in team building and knowledge elicitation, managing consultants, legal
consultants - works regularly and closely with each team of teachers and
teacher assistants, helping with preparing lessons, analyzing lessons and their
outcomes, adjusting teaching techniques and approaches. This description might
seem like a description of a Teachers– Professionals Partnership (e.g.
Professional Development School Partnership). However, every partnership is
based on a collaboration of a school educators with educators who work full time
at a college, or a university, or a school of education, and only visit a
school from time to time. The new type of school described in this proposal
will require all professionals work full time at the school, participate in all
teaching activities, including teaching students.

The school has a complete staff roster, which includes
all staff positions necessary for the everyday functioning of the school. All
staff members are essential for the school wellbeing and can participate in
team meetings (as long as it does not interfere with the required duties). When
a team has to decide on the matter at hands the final decision is made by the
leading teacher.

Functioning of the school is directed by the motto:
“The school is a community, every member of the community is equally essential,
every member of the community helps others with achieving their goals, every
member of the community vows do not do any harm neither physical nor
psychological to any other member of the community”.

Teaching is based on principles of constructivism,
asserting the importance of a zone of proximal development (this statement has
to be also seen as a constraint on the selection of the school employees such
as teachers and school specialists).

As part of the requirement, all subjects include
components helping developing metacognitive abilities and metaskills (including
but not limited to an ability to communicate, an ability to cooperate and work
as a team member, an ability to self-reflect and to describe internal cognitive
processes).

In addition to the standard high school subjects the
school requires taking subjects specifically designed for helping developing
metacognitive abilities and metaskills (a student theater, a debate course,
chess, piano – or equivalent). “A successful person is a harmonic person”.

Students are regularly involved in competitions,
Olympiads, games which help developing metacognitive abilities and metaskills.

Each parent of a student (or student’s legal
representative/guardian) and the school administration has a signed contract,
according to which:

(A) the administration takes the following
responsibilities (this implies that a parent or a legal representative fulfills
all his or her responsibilities bound by the contract):

1. do not make any harm in any way to a physical and
psychological wellbeing of a student;

2. provide all resources necessary for a student to
succeed in the school and life;

3. motivate a student to communicate with fellow
students and teachers all his or her desires and doubts, achievements and
troubles;

4. motivate a student to work hard on the assignments
at home and in the school;

5. motivate a student to participate in
extracurricular activities, including participating in TV episodes.

6. assessing student’s knowledge, skills, and abilities,
and based on the results of the assessment projecting the graduating outcomes
for the student (including the probability of being ready for entering college,
the probability of needing extra time to graduate from the school);

7. if the results of the assessment allow, guaranty
that student’s achievements including learning outcomes will be sufficient to
be accepted by a college and to be successful in a college, as long as (a) the
student is willing to pursue college education, and (b) the name of the college
is on the list provided in an addendum to the contract.

(B) a parent or a legal representative/guardian takes
the following responsibilities (this implies that the school fulfills all its
responsibilities bound by the contract):

1. do not make any harm in any way to a physical and
psychological wellbeing of a student;

2. motivate a student to communicate with fellow
students and teachers all his or her desires and doubts, achievements and
troubles;

3. motivate a student to work hard on the assignments
at home and in the school;

4. motivate a student to participate in
extracurricular activities, including participating in TV episodes.

5. communicate with teachers and administration all
the desires and doubts, and issues related to the wellbeing and the study of a
student;

Because a regionally distributed school cannot be
formally designed as a public school, the school is a private (non-profit)
school. However, by its spirit the school is public (students do not pay a
dime). In each district the school participates in the lottery as a regular
public school. Students and parents do not pay for education and for any
supplementary/complementary school functions.

The school is governed by a principal. The principal
conducts and concludes the hiring of all other employees. The principal and an
employee sign a contract which defines their mutual rights and
responsibilities. The principal is responsible for the number of the employees
and their work schedule, the principal defines responsibilities of the employees.
The principal makes all financial decisions. The everyday functioning of each
school unit is governed by a unit director to whom the principal delegates
rights and responsibilities necessary and sufficient to govern the school unit,
and described in the contract between the principal and a director.

The principal is selected upon the search conducted by
the school board. The school board is composed of representatives from the
districts, donors, and exceptional personalities. The rights and responsibilities
of the principal and the board members are defined by the bylaw, which is
accepted on the first board meeting. The board provides the principal with
oversight and advising on his or her everyday functioning and on the general
school policies.

Financing

The financing is provided by the donors (charities,
philanthropists, NSF), but a large part of the budget will be coming from
business activates of the facility.

In order to supply an internal income, the school
establishes a for-profit company. The school principle is also the director of
the company. The company will have two main departments: a broadcasting
department and R&D department.

The school is expected to have a stream of a revenue
due to (a) business activities of a broadcasting department , and possibly, (b)
revenue coming from consulting activities of the professionals, from printed
and digital items developed by the professionals as a part of research program
(R&D department), and (c) stocks offering for a for-profit company.

The mission of the broadcasting department and its
business activities are aimed at promoting the school via a reality-like
TV-show. The school has to be designed in such a way that – within limits
placed by privacy laws – the whole world could be watching all in school
activities 24/7.

There are several streams of revenue.

TV commercials.

Subscriptions to the content provided on the school
website, subscriptions to live stream from the school, subscriptions to a TV
channel designated to run 24/7 live events and reruns of the events happening
in the school, like “learning with the stars”, where “stars” (including
football players, basketball players, other star personalities) take classes
and exams together with students.

A product placement. School furniture, school uniform,
students’ breakfasts and lunch, textbooks, worksheets, calculators, hardware
(computers and tablets) and software they use, pens, pencils, erasers, etc. -
everything is a part of the business practice of the company.

School team members develop their own teaching tools
of all kind, from syllabi to textbooks, to TV and online lessons (those tools
are better than many on the market). Team meetings are televised. School
members give lectures, provide consulting services to schools and districts on
better teaching practices, provide reviews on teaching tools which have been selected
for approbation.

With the help of R&D department, all inventions
done by the school team are to be protected by patents. Every modification
leading to improvement of teaching instruments selected for approbation is
protected by a patent shared with the original patent holder.

A half a year after the initiation of the first class
the school opens doors for interns (expecting a long line of pre-service and
in- service teachers to become an intern). The work of the interns is also
televised.

In two years after the initiation of the first class,
a regionally- and facet- distributed joint onsite-online-live streaming
collaborative college starts providing the best in the country teacher
preparation courses (school graduates are welcomed to attend this college).

The school is a model of a good schooling; it provides
the market with robust and internally consistent teaching tools; school interns
and college graduates bring their teaching experience into other schools.
Because of the openness of the school via a TV-show all other schools in the
country have to compete with the school to prove to parents that they also can
do good teaching.

It is expected that within five years the facility
becomes financially self-sufficient.

The success of the school is solely based on the team,
the members of which are selected by the principal; the vision of the team
members must mirror the vision of the principal, who is selected by the board.
It is also crucial to have the board members who share the vision described in this
concept letter.

About the author: my website provides all information
about me, including my experience, the areas of my expertise, my projects. The
reader finds that I have been immersing myself in research on how students
learn. I have spent significant amount of time unearthing student needs, as
well as exploring the changing demands of the world. I have undertaken the
rigorous thinking necessary to shape my ideas into the model of the next
American high school. I know exactly how to build the new American school,
which will be unique in its design, functioning, and financing. The new school
will be innovative and engaging, and will prepare all students for a thriving
future.

The core of this approach is OPENNESS. I would invite teachers, administrators, philanthropists
to support “An Open Classroom” initiative.

I firmly believe that no matter what new technologies
will bring to the classrooms, the quality of education has been, is, and always
will be defined by how many good highly qualified teachers teach our students.

And one of the strongest motivators for a teacher to
grow is to have his or her classroom open for observations to the parents of
his or her students, to administrations, to fellow teachers, and basically to
anybody who has time and interest to watch their lessons.

That is why I invite everyone who feels the same to
support “Open Classroom Initiative”.

All the teachers participating in the project will
allow their lessons be captured and posted online. The project will need some
hardware, such as web cameras, servers, Wi-Fi routers, DVRs, and also various
processing and editing software, Internet and cloud services. The Initiative
will be helping teachers to be better prepared for their classes, helping them
with purchasing materials for their lessons, with consulting on the best
practices they can use to help students learn.

From every participating teacher, it is not just
recorded videos of the lessons that will be available for the viewers, but also
materials they prepared and used, comments and analysis of what worked and what
didn't work, and recommendations on how a teacher could improve his or her
teaching practice.

To address privacy concerns a special software will be
used which will blur the faces of students and teachers.

The “Open Classroom Initiative” will lead to the
development of a library of lessons with the corresponding materials useful for
every teacher anywhere around the world.

Teachers from any country can participate in the Initiative
and join the open classroom movement.

But the benefits of the Initiative will go beyond just
teachers who participate.

Every teacher will be able to compare his or her
practice with the practices of fellow teachers teaching the same subjects in the
same grade.

The library will become an open source of the
invaluable research material for every scientist in the field of education.

Every parent, teacher, principal, or a district
administrator can send an invitation to the Initiative, and the Initiative
would come to his or her school to find the teachers who would like to join the
project.

The Initiative will be posting regular updates on the
evolution of the project.

And BTW: this is a good way to assess how professional
a teacher is – by asking “would you mind if your lessons would be broadcasting
live, and captures and made available online?”

________

NB: It would be hypocritical of me to call on teachers
to open their classrooms but hide my own lessons.

All the videos are free, as well as all the materials
I used for the course (well, except the exams). Based on my encounters with physics teachers, I noticed that some of them focus too much on teaching strategies, and do not have deep understanding of physics. For those teachers I would strongly recommend video-"taking" my course.

Appendix II

This project has been developed as an answer to the
call from Ms. Lauren Powell Jobs. At first I wrote an open letter in which I criticized the approach chosen by
XQsuprshool project. Particularly, I stated that funding 5 (five!)
super-schools will never let to achieve the goal, which was declared as
“to transform high school education in the whole country” (paraphrasing). But
then, assuming that the authors might indeed have been seeking projects with
drastically new approaches to schooling, I offered the project described above. Appendix IIILater on I wrote letters to Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan and more. Just followed folk wisdom - if you didn't succeed ... etc.

I
am not an idiot or a reckless person. The reason I can allow myself
writing what I think, even if that is perpendicular to commonly adopted
and conventional views, is that my financial situation is sufficient and
stable. Of course, as a normal person, I wouldn't mind making more money, or being involved in more interesting projects (as described in my generic resume). But I do not have to pretend to be someone I'm not to make my living.

If you would decided to invest a couple of hours into
study of my “recipe” for reforming education (which, honestly, is perpendicular
to the mainstream views), at the minimum you would broader your views on
education in general.

“A visionary is not the one who can see things farther
away than others, nowadays everyone can utilize binoculars or other instruments
to see things afar. A visionary is the one who can see NOW, what others will
see much later.”

Since then I wrote many more posts on education
(evidently), but my search for a visionary philanthropist has not yet been
fruitful.

The critical pieces in the third part of this webpage
include descriptions of the efforts of several foundations.

My critique is not about what they do – I admire the
efforts to help children getting better education.

My critique is about what they claim – they all claim to reform, reshape the whole system of education.

I have addressed that claim in my pieces.

Here I just want to repeat again that all those
foundations will prove is that if you have enough money to hire enough good teachers and to provide to teachers
and student good learning
environment, students will be learning better than students in other schools.

Affecting the whole
system of education requires much more than that; and that is the reason for me
writing all those articles listed
above (Don’t believe me? Read them!).

Here and now I will only repeat one major feature of the only approach which will make a difference
(if applied right) – the openness (some specifics can be
found in this posts).

P.S. I care about education. That is why I
use different forms of communication in my attempt to reach out. The rest depends on how good founders are at finding people to work
with. And on how strong is their curiosity. A butterfly effect exists. But it only can happen in a system in a state far away from equilibrium. When a mind is set and rigid, it only accepts information which fits in the already familiar set of patterns.

I
am not an idiot or a reckless person. The reason I can allow myself
writing what I think, even if that is perpendicular to commonly adopted
and conventional views, is that my financial situation is sufficient and
stable. Of course, as a normal person, I wouldn't mind making more money, or being involved in more interesting projects (as described in my generic resume). But I do not have to pretend to be someone I'm not to make my living.

In
the original thought experiment (J. A. Wheeler, 1978), a photon enters an interferometer
at the location of a beam splitter BS1, and “the experimenter chooses whether
or not to remove the beam splitter BS2 after a photon has entered a Mach-
Zehnder interferometer (at BS1).”

(Figure is used with the permission of the publisher)

The
authors “treat the photon in the Mach-Zehnder interferometer as a two-level
quantum system”. The statistics is to be supplied using “photon counting …
detector(s)”.

The
authors offer a quote (H. Paul, 1982) “It is essential that a single photon
source is used, such that both detectors never click simultaneously. This
guarantees that each photon cannot be modeled as a classical wave that is
quantized only at the detector”.

The
discussion essentially revolves around different possible descriptions of a
photon traveling along only one possible path, or (as a manifestation of its
wave-like properties) along two paths at the same time.

A
beam splitter is a device an interaction with which may open for a photon two
possible paths to travel along. For the original or a modified experiment, all
versions of reasoning about possible outcomes of an experiment are based on the
assumption that the photon that eventually enters a detector is always the same photon that entered an interferometer (e.g. at beam splitter BS1).

This
assumption, however, is wrong.

A
beam splitter is a macroscopic optical device which consists of a large number
of atoms or molecules.

When
a photon is encountering a device, it does not interact with the device as a
whole, it only interacts with a specific atom. As the result of that
interaction the photon can be absorbed or scattered. In the latter case, the
photon may encounter another atom, and interact with it. There is always non-zero
probability that the original photon will be absorbed by the device, and a
photon leaving the device will be produced by an atom in the device. Hence, in
the latter case, the device does not open for a photon two different paths; a
photon does not take one path or another, or both. An original photon gets
absorbed, disappears. But, as the result of complicated interactions inside a
device, the device eventually (the process takes time) emits a new photon, which on its way to a detector may encounter another optical device,
etc.

Exactly
same situation will be happening when a photon interacts with any optical
device, including (but not limited) a fully reflective mirror, a lens, a prism,
a polarizer, a fiber optical cable.

Under
these circumstance, any statement about the fate of the original photon
entering a detector is wrong, because there is always non-zero, and not
accounted for, probability that the photon entering a detector is not the original
one, but the one emitted by an optical device (at least one of several devices existing
between the very first device and a detector).

An
optical device, any optical device, simply cannot be used to make a definite
(known) alternation (from a set of possible alternations) in the behavior of a
photon entering that device, because there is always non-zero probability of
the photon being absorbed.

The
result of an action of an optical device on light i.e. (reflection, refraction,
polarization) is statistical, and based on the interactions between light in
form of a wave (i.e. a large number of photons) and the charges in the device.

Without
accounting for the exact interaction between a single photon and an optical
device in its entirety, any statement regarding howan optical device may
affect the behavior of a single photon is meaningless.

This
realization negates all conclusions from all experiments (thought or actual)
based on a “single photon – optical device” interaction (which are many).

The
authors write: quote: “The entangled photon source … generated fiber-coupled
photon pairs … in a state close to the maximally entangled Bell state. … Each
photon was guided to a transmitting telescope (Tx) and distributed via
free-space optical channels to the receiving stations of Alice and Bob. Each
station consisted of a receiving telescope for entangled photons (Rx), a
polarization analyzer (POL).”

The
whole experiment and the following analysis of it is based on the assumption
that the photons reaching the receiving stations are the same photons which had
been initially generated.

But
following the previous argument, there is non-zero – and not accounted for – probability
that the originally generated photon (or photons) was (were) absorbed, hence
the measured correlations between the photons registered by the receiving
stations include correlations between different types of photons.

Quasar
photons also have been in a contact with different materials which may have
affected their properties, or absorbed and re-reemitted some of the photons.

The
authors write, quote: “Within an optically linear medium,
there does not exist any known physical process that can absorb and reradiate a
given photon at a different wavelength along the same line of sight, without
violating the local conservation of energy and momentum”

This
statement demonstrates that the authors are aware of a possible absorption of
some of the photons and the further replacement of those photons with new ones.
They state as the fact that the new reradiated photons will the same wavelength
as the absorbed photons. This fact is correct - ish.This fact is correct - on average! - for a large number of photons, i.e. for an electromagnetic field
traveling through a transparent medium. But I would like to see a proof
of that fact/statement for a single photon colliding with a single
electron in such a complex system as an atom. Plus, the authors ignore
possible multi-photon events. In the end, we need to assume that he process of absorption
and reradiation may alternate the state of quantum coherence between different photons,
and that option has not been considered among the ones which could, quote: “lead to corrupt choices of measurement settings within our
experiment”.

However, when the goal of an experiment is to
probe quantum correlations, the process which may alternate those correlations is the most important to be considered
as a reason to corrupt an experiment.

In
the end, the described experiment does not allow to established if the result describes solely
the properties of entangled photons, or it describes the properties of a large system which
was including entangled photons but also was affecting those photons in a
non-accounted way.The
two specific examples reported in this piece demonstrate a very common
situation when authors try to analyze the behavior of a microscopic
system ignoring possible effects of the interaction between the system
and the macroscopic measuring device (as the whole) beyond the effects
the authors are looking for (beyond the possible states of the
detectors). It is also a common case when authors apply properties of
the interaction between a medium and a macroscopic number of microscopic
particles to the interaction between a microscopic particle and a
particle of the medium without having proved the possibility of this transition.That proof should be based on the analysis of the evolution of a state-vector (wave-function) of a single photon (or two photons, to study the entanglement); the evolution is governed by a Hamiltonian; everything which may affect the photon (or photons) before it reaches a detector (before being measured, before wave-function gets "collapsed") must be a part of the Hamiltonian; otherwise the theory does not describe the actual phenomenon.

Note: this post represents a formalization of one of the ideas discussed in my previous publications on the foundations of quantum mechanics, such as:

Thank you for your
comments on this Paper being considered by European Journal of Physics. We
wanted to let you know that we have now made a decision on this article based
on all of the feedback received. On this occasion our decision is: Reject

If you would like to see the referee reports for this article, they are now
available by viewing the decision letter for this article in your referee centre at .

We are very grateful for your assessment of this paper and we look forward to
working with you again in the future.

As
one can see, there is a difference between how APS reviewers operate, and how I
operate as a reviewer.

When
an author makes a claim, a reviewer has only six options to choose from.

1.
The claim is wrong.

2.
The claim is correct and significant.3.
The claim is correct and significant, but it has been already previously made, hence, not original.

4.
The claim is correct but insignificant.

5.
The claim is not clear, but may be correct and significant.

6.
The claim is not clear, but even if will be correct, it will not be significant.

In
any case, a reviewer can address the claim.

If that is not a case, it simply means a reviewer does not assess the claim, the
reviewer assesses an author, and finds the author insignificant (does not
deserve the reviewer’s time).

It is not a surprise to me that some reviewers may act in such a manner; they are
people after all. The fact that they do science does not automatically mean
that they also conduct a scientific behavior.If someone can skillfully manipulate by a sophisticated machine which makes complicated parts for a space shuttle, would we call that one "an engineer"? Doubtful. The one does not design the parts, doe not have a big picture of how different parts should work together. the one is a technician. There are also many "scientific technicians". Someone who can skillfully apply a sophisticate algorithm to generate some new data. But the algorithm was developed by someone else. And the data mined in the process do not relieve anything truly unexpected. Such a person, though, can be a very good manager, skillful organizer, and make decisions about scientific importance based on how close the ideas are to his own.

This
fact has already been described in literature, for example, in books like:

I know why it is on hold. In this tiny paper, with no single equation, even no single number (can you imagine - no math!), I go right to the essence of a physical phenomenon (and as a very successful physics teacher, and more, I claim that that is the essence of physics). My claim affects numerous publications which use the evolution of a single photon (just Google "a single photon experiment") as the engine for arriving at final conclusions. The authors of those paper will have to find a fix (do math). That fix may be trivial. Or may not exist.What I am curious about is who keeps it on hold?New technologies allow reaching out to a wide audience bypassing established root. For example, in three says after the publication, this piece has reached 61 people.

To this day (12/21/2018), my three blogs reached more than fifty thousand people (combined). I wonder, how many people have read the works of my reviewer?

Appendix III

Yesterday (well, technically, already today), while I was falling asleep, it came to me!

Take a "classical" electron diffraction experiment.

Everyone asks a question "How does an electron "know" where to hit a screen?" But the more interesting question is, "how does it "know" where NOT to hit a screen?" Restrictions on values of physical quantities is one of the most striking differences between quantum and classical mechanic. There are locations on a screen which will never be reached by an electron. But a screen is just a device which stops an electron and makes it seen where it was stopped. A screen can be moved closer or farther away (relative to a carbon crystal playing the role of a diffraction grating). That means that in the space beyond the carbon crystal there are lines, or surfaces where an electron can never be. Take a carbon crystal out, and an electron will be able to be at any location. Place a carbon crystal in, and the space changes, in the space beyond the carbon crystal there are locations where an electron can never be.

A carbon crystal changes the space.

I imagine that changed space like a set of grooves with different deepness (in terms of epistemology, those grooves play role similar to Bohr's orbits). Those which have deeper troughs represent paths with a higher probability of an electron to travel. And the crests represent locations where an electrons cannotbe (the Feynman's path for those lines/trajectories has zero amplitude).Of course, this picture implies that at any given instant an electron is located at a certain point in space, it is not smeared around all over space like a physical wave.

The motion of a particle heavier than an electron is not affected as mach as of an electron. A macroscopic particle does not "feel" any grooves at all.

By making a crystal larger and larger, by adding more and more atoms, grooves become more and more overlapping, and eventually, the space is "flattened".

But a crystal is made of atoms. The resulting change in space due to a crystal is the result of interposition (overlapping, interference - described by probability amplitudes (?)) of the changes in space due to an individual atom.

Atoms are made of particles.

The
resulting change in space due to an atom is the result of
interposition (overlapping, interference) of the changes in space due
to an individual particle.

Finally, we have reached the main point of this idea.

Every single particle changes space around it.

It is like in the Einstein's theory of general relativity.

An empty space is flat (I know, it is a space-time, and it may be disturbed by a gravitational wave, but as physics always does, we are starting from the simplest model).

If we place a heavy star in space, the space bends.

To see how it bends, we shoot light and observe its trajectory (does not have to be light, can be any object).

Now, on a microscopic level, we do the same.

An empty space is flat.

We place a particle in it, and space changes; we don't know yet - how it changes, but we know - it does.

Each additional particle leads to an additional change.

To see that change we shoot a photon, or an electron, or another particle, which travels in a changed space.

That change may NOT be static (like bent but static space around a static star); in fact, most probably it is stochastic and leads to the existence of stable and unstable configurations (e.g. Bohr's energy levels). That change also may propagate faster than light ("spooky action over distance").

The mathematical description of this approach should lead to the Schrödinger's equation.

Since we need to understand how a microscopic particle affects space, most probably we need to figure out how to quantize gravity.

For example, the metric tensor may represent only the average value of the space-time metric. The actual value of each component of the metric tensor stochastically fluctuates around the average one.Calculating averages or correlation factors implies using some other parameters as independent variables (at least one) - the meaning of those variables is not known (extra dimensions? spin? another actual field?). Placing a particle in an empty space changes the stochastic properties. The equations for the parameters describing stochastic properties of the space-time in the presence of particles may have stable solution for only specific values of some of the parameters (masses, charges). In a way, this approach is ideologically similar to the Einstein's (and others) approach to a united field theory, but now with an addition of a stochastic component to it.